Politics & Government

Opinion: Buono Battle Over Party Chair Recalls Democratic Dustups of Years Past

At this point, making peace rather than waves is the best course for Dem's gubernatorial candidate.

By Michael Aron

[Michael Aron is the chief political correspondent of NJTV.]

The fissure in the New Jersey Democratic Party reminds me of the episode in 2000 that came to be known as "The Twelve Days of Robert Torricelli."

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Jim McGreevey at the time was the putative Democratic nominee for governor in 2001, having run in 1997 and lost to Christie Whitman by just a percentage point. But all of a sudden that summer, Sen. Robert Torricelli made it known that he would like to be the gubernatorial nominee and announced it as if he felt he could muscle McGreevey aside.

Democratic leaders throughout the state started taking sides. George Norcross, the South Jersey leader then and now, was backing Torricelli. John Lynch, the Middlesex County leader and former Senate president, was backing McGreevey. Indeed, McGreevey through the 1990s had been seen as a creation of Lynch, who had determined as far back as 1988 that he couldn't run for governor himself because his wife's brother had mob connections. So he prepped "The Kid."

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Norcross and Lynch were the two Democratic titans at the time. Other key Democrats started lining up behind them. Sen. Ray Lesniak, of Union County, was in the McGreevey camp from the outset. Hudson County executive Bob Janiszewski signed on with Torricelli. Every day the front page of the newspapers carried a new twist, a new endorser, a new machination, new arguments from McGreevey and Torricelli as to why each would be the better standard-bearer the following year.

It was war, and it was exciting. 

Read more at NJSpotlight.com

NJ Spotlight is an issue-driven news website that provides critical insight to New Jersey’s communities and businesses. It is non-partisan, independent, policy-centered and community-minded.


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